Secrets and Lies: The Racket – Thrown Under the Bus (Recap/Review)

Secrets and Lies “The Racket” does indeed throw someone under the bus, a few someone’s actually. Apart from learning who is actually running the Mint Hill brothel this episode allows Detective Cornell to actually focus on the case. Her new partner Detective Ralston is a lot more hands on this week and Danny helps Eric with his passcode problem.

As Cornell and Ralston look over the whore house that Eric’s wife runs, they discover hidden cameras and the hard drives. The drives have been wiped clean but vice have a sleeper camera outside the premises.

The cops have no warrant but they do have probable cause and later, when Ralston takes Cornell to his old Vice stomping grounds, a colleague reluctantly agrees to hand over the pictures taken from outside the residence. Cornell agrees to reciprocate by returning the favor.

Eric throws Patrick under the bus by giving his illegal activities and the proof of same to Cornell. The detective arrests Eric’s brother and he then throws his “trashy” wife under the same vehicle. She, in turn, promises to give up Kate’s murderer to Cornell.

This was an interesting episode. The finger of suspicion pointed to Patrick last week. The evidence found at the Mint Hill bordello sealed his fate in this episode and prompted his removal from S.E.G. as well as his arrest.

Melanie was also taken in, Eric’s wife was picked up from her yoga class mid-stretch. Ralston, somewhat amusingly, says “Namaste,” to the instructor as they lead the handcuffed woman from the room.

Danny is still desperate to find his daughter Rachel. He comes within a gnat’s whisker of kidnapping Melanie Warner. Just as he posies himself to take her, Danny spots two Vice cops watching Patrick’s wife.

The New York detective was spotted by Ralston’s former colleagues on the sleeper camera footage and the detective who helps Andrea smiles at the obsessed father. Patrick learns that Melanie has been sleeping with his lawyer and when the man enters the interrogation room, Warner attacks him.

Eric believes his brother and Melanie were blackmailing him and after Danny breaks the passcode on Kate’s iPad, they find that the tracker on the money moving. Eric knows that both Eric and his wife are in custody so it cannot be either of them.

He and Danny follow the signal and Eric sees his father driving down the road where the tracker was pinged by the software. Once again, we are privy to the sadness and pain behind the carefully maintained facade that the Warner’s previously projected to the public.

Eric raised both his siblings since their alcoholic mother was unable and their father was away so often. Patrick has always been desperate to be as able and clever as his big brother and father. Melanie, is indeed, “trashy” as she worked in a brothel before she met Patrick.

Secrets and Lies has done a pretty good job of peeling back the layers of deceit and it looks like the Eric’s company and many of its main players will end up doing jail time. Between the money syphoned off by Eric and the house of prostitution, S.E.G. will definitely be going down.

Juliette Lewis was spot on in this episode. Her character’s taunting of Patrick was crucial in forcing the man to turn over his wife. The writing this week was taut and followed a lot of trails that seemingly all ended up with the prime suspect(s) being a member of the Warner family.

Michael Ealy is splendid as the widower who is doggedly searching for clues while watching the company he inherited from his father crash and burn.

There are two episodes left in this season and it will be interesting to see who will actually wear the mantle of murderer.

Secrets and Lies airs Sundays on ABC. Tune in and see who actually killed Kate Warner.